Playing bar for hawaiian steel guitars



Feb. 11, 1936. s. COMONS 2,030,241.

PLAYING BAR FOR HAWAIIAN STEEL GUITARS Filed Sept. 16. 1953 l qvelyfor Patented Feb. 11, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PLAYING BAR FOR HAWAIIAN STEEL GUITARS 3 Claims.

The invention relates to improvements in playing bars for Hawaiian steel guitars and an object of the invention is to provide a simply constructed inexpensive and durable playing bar which can be readily held by the player and which can be also easily and quickly manipulated by the player over the guitar strings to produce the varied results required while playing the instrument.

A more detailed object of the invention is to provide a playing bar of cylindrical form which can be readily rolled or bodily shifted in any direction over the strings and which has the exterior surface thereof toothed, the teeth insuring an effective grip for the fingers and thumb and also having the effect when the bar is rolled of sustaining the tone for a longer period of time than occurs with smooth faced playing bars with which I am familiar.

With the above more important and other minor objects in view which will become more apparent as the description proceeds the invention consists essentially in the arrangement and construction of parts hereinafter more particularly described, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, in which: v

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of part of a Hawaiian steel guitar and showing my playing bar applied upon the strings thereof.

Fig. 2 is a front view of the playing bar.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detailed vertical cross sectional view through the lower part of the bar, the section being taken at 33, Figure 2.

Fig. 4 is a front view of a modified type of bar.

In the drawing like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

As is well known the Hawaiian steel guitar has six all metal strings, the heavier or three lower strings being wire bound while the three upper strings are not so bound and the instrument is played by using a playing bar manipulated over the strings by say the left hand while the strings are struck or picked by the right hand. The playing bar is held by the fingers and thumb of the left hand and in the actual playing operation is sometimes bodily raised and shifted over the strings, other times bodily shifted in various directions when resting on the strings and at other times rolled backwardly and forwardly over the strings.

Playing bar I which I have provided is made from metal and is cylindrical in form having a length approximately equal to the width of the neck 2 of the guitar 3 so that it may effectively cover all strings 4 and a diameter convenient for gripping purposes and consistent with the weight required, the diameter in actual practice being approximately of an inch.

The face of the bar is longitudinally fluted or channelled as indicated at 5 to provide lengthwise extending spaced similar parallel teeth 6.

In a bar which I have made and used and which gives very satisfactory results I have 32 teeth and the teeth and the channels are approximately about of an inch in width.

By making the bar with these teeth a very positive and effective grip is obtained when the bar is grasped between the first and second fingers and the thumb and it is accordingly very easy to bodily lift the bar upwardly clear of the strings and shift it to a new location and it is also extremely easy to twist the bar in relation to the strings or to roll the bar backwardly and forwardly on the strings. Obviously the positive grip permitted is a very important feature as the ready and positive control of the bar at all times is essential to good playing of the instrument.

I have found also that a toothed bar of this kind has the effect when rolled backwardly and forwardly on the strings of sustaining or prolonging the tone of the vibrating string or strings and in explanation it would appear that in the back and forward rolling of the bar as is common practice the moving teeth strike the string and in so doing prolong the vibration thereof. In this connection I might remark that I have used a smooth surfaced cylindrical bar and when compared with the toothed bar there is a consider able difference in the tone sustaining time, the toothed bar giving much better results and it has also the desirable gripping feature not possible with the smooth faced cylindrical bar.

In Figure 4 I have shown one-half the bar toothed and the other half plain surfaced. This form of the bar gives the same gripping value and also the prolonging of the tone of the upper strings of the instrument which are usually the ones carrying the melody.

As before stated the three lower strings are wire bound so that they present a much rougher exterior than the three top strings and on this account some players may prefer that part of the bar which operates on the three lower strings smooth faced as shown. in Figure 4 as there is a slight grating or rasping sound when the fully toothed bar as shown in Figure 2 is operating on the lower three relatively rough surfaced strings. Actually I do not consider the latter detrimental as such undesirable sound is absorbed in the music played and cannot be detected by one listening but may possibly be noticed by the player himself.

What I claim as my invention is:-

1. A cylindrical playing bar having the string contacting cylindrical face thereof lengthwise channelled to provide spaced lengthwise extending teeth.

2. A cylindrical metallic playing bar having one-half the peripheral string contacting face thereof plain surfaced and the other half lengthwise channelled to form teeth, the teeth extending lengthwise of the bar and being equi-spaced and appearing entirely around the bar.

3. A stringed instrument playing bar having the string contacting face thereof lengthwise channelled to provide spaced lengthwise extending teeth.

STANLEY COMONS. 

